hey lindsay how are you i'm doing great aubry how are you what's going on today
i am excellent i feel kind of sick because yesterday i ate five donuts
crazy wait are you serious or are you just telling that as i said so i really okay it wasn't
yesterday it was about a week ago oh no because it's so perfect for our episode but i am really
moorish they say where i can't just eat one good word you lindsey if you have like a box of cookies
can you just eat one well for me cookies are a little different than donuts because
like now where are we talking about donuts or cookies yeah that changes things yeah
cookies i struggle to eat one of course oh my gosh especially if they have big chunks of chocolate
chip and peanut butter ah the good stuff oatmeal raisin cookies i could leave them right leave it
take it or leave it but but milk chocolate chip oh now you're talking
i know i can never eat even like a couple cookies i always have to eat several yeah they're little
a couple of cookies just a couple you always say you're going to have a couple of cookies
and you end up having the whole box right this is just what happens so i'm so bad about that
but donuts get more full they're just like a little bit bigger right don't have holes over
the course of a day like i had one in the morning and then another one and the box was just there
and by the end of the day i was like why do i feel sick what did i eat today that's so funny i've
noticed today okay we know your weakness right i love donuts oh my goodness all right guys this
is really an interesting topic we had a listener write in about quantity words so you heard us use
several of them there right we're going to dive into a couple few and several and it's not as easy
as you might think because there's implied meaning by some of them so we're going to dive into that
oh man i'm glad we're talking about this today because i bet our listeners really do struggle
right so one more time can you list the ones we're going to talk about it's a couple of
several and what else a few a few okay got it i'm ready let's get into it let's read
the question here first of all all right okay native english speakers often use a couple of
judging from the context i mostly get the impression that this conveys
the same meaning as several more than two but way back in high school my english teacher insisted
that a couple of always meant two since it is a couple like a pair but i always felt that's not
quite right at least not anymore my high school english teacher was not a native speaker but a
german who had studied english in the uk maybe there they are somewhat different lately i've
heard you guys saying i'll give you a couple of examples and in one episode then you gave two
so does a couple of really mean two or could it also mean more than two i could it's funny because
i could see them asking you know saying you said i would give a couple examples and then one time
you gave two and one time you gave three it's just not fair it's not fair right it's not fair because
it's not an exact science guys right yeah i want to say as a special thank you to our listener do
we have the listener's name who wrote this in no you don't have to send their name i never save it
i apologize yeah guys send in your questions send it to lindsay allardsenglish.com and include your
name include you know let us say your name on the show because we appreciate our listeners who send
in good questions this is fun to get that shout out i know if you left this question comment on
the blog on our social media let us know that it was your question because it is a good one it's a
really good one fantastic all right well let's set the record straight here aubry what do we think
yes right so these words are determiners they're modifying nouns the first one we'll dive into is
a couple of which does usually mean two right and it comes from just like this listener asked
to partners who are dating or married we call them a couple so usually when we say a couple
we need two however this is tricky because when it comes to expressing quantity with the word couple
it's certainly not exact right yes precise when it comes to time and amounts of things so when i say
a couple of minutes right i'll be there in a couple minutes does that necessarily mean
too lindsay no not always not especially when you're you know you told a story earlier with
your kids when you tell them you'll be there in a couple minutes and then it ends up being 20. what
happens they exactly they get upset and they're like i thought a couple meant two it's been half
an hour right and yeah often we use couple of this way to de-emphasize the length right okay it'll
just be a couple minutes you know it's going to be more than two so you're not wanting it to sound
like a lot you're wanting to make it sound like a shorter amount of time i mean life is all about
how you present things right i love that concept we're always selling something in the world right
and you in that case we're selling that extra time to your kids right and so you're always running a
marketing campaign that's so true that's how mom life right i love also think about cookies right
if i let's say i ate seven cookies and then i might say i ate a couple cookies this afternoon
right i'm not going to i don't know that i would ever say i ate several
cookies because that sounds like so many i'm wanting to to make it sound smaller
so i'm sort of reverse exaggerating by saying yeah i ate a couple cookies it's no big deal
yeah so it's kind of broad i mean again it can mean many things guys when it comes to
time amount of time and things but again going back to the original example two people dating or
married is a couple so that's how we come back to the two that's always the same right most of the
time pretty much yeah okay um what else now quick note right that you will often hear native say a
couple cookies or a couple minutes and you hear them drop the of yeah what's that all in mind that
this is just because natives speak quickly right we're often dropping things dropping the ends
of words dropping letters but if you're going to write this grammatically it's correct to have it
be with the of a couple of so learn it as that chunk a couple of minutes a couple of cookies
but in informal speech natives drop it you can drop it but if you're writing an email or a letter
you would want to include a couple of meetings yeah i totally agree with that guys there's spoken
english and then there's written english right we need to know the difference but to really connect
with natives and to you know feel familiar you can totally drop that couple of okay can i have
a couple cookies right can i have a couple cookies it just flows there's no time to say can i have a
couple of cookies okay we don't have time for that extra syllable no we want the cookies already okay
okay so let's dive into a few usually a few means three but same thing we are pretty flexible here
right if i say i'll be ready in a few minutes that could mean 20 that could mean 30. i'm gonna eat a
few cookies that could mean 20 or 30. yeah yeah yeah so a few so i guess usually it means three
right as you said but in general it means three but it could definitely mean two it could mean
four five right a few minutes love it so good and again we might say it to to make the amount sound
smaller right yeah be ready in just a few minutes when you know it's gonna be half an hour a couple
minutes a few minutes exactly it's more about knowing the person who's saying that thing right
what does that tend to mean for that person exactly how honest are you about how long you're
gonna take aubry are you really slow getting ready like if you're gonna go out on a date with your
husband for example are you do you do the whole thing are you slow to get ready or do you just
like are you like okay throw on my shoes my pants ready go that's me i'm out the door fast right
i'm like quick shower quick get ready i i got time for that it doesn't okay my poor husband would
probably prefer that i put in more time but too bad that's funny i love that i'm the same way i
don't i don't do a lot of makeup i don't do a lot of stuff with my hair i just go out the door right
i'm just so likable that you just gotta love me as is the best you're gonna get i mean kind of
i don't love the idea of just putting on a whole other face for the world and not being yourself
right it's sort of i don't know well and a lot of younger women or celebrities they're
practically painting on a whole new face so then when you see them i actually just saw a picture
of kim kardashian next to a picture of her without makeup and i didn't even recognize her she looked
like a totally different person really interesting because they like paint on everything wow i didn't
know that to each their own yeah you go do you kim but i don't want to do that i don't have time and
yeah that's a good expression to each their own what does that mean just as a side bonus
for our listeners that i don't judge her for that right i feel like everyone is allowed to
make choices and do what they want to do so when i say to each their own i'm saying i am
totally fine with her doing that and making that choice for her but it's not what i would do
i love it so good guys write that one down there's always great bonus vocabulary coming out of these
episodes here okay yes okay let's go to the next several right this means more than three
and this we're a little we wouldn't say like i'll be ready in several minutes or i'm going to
eat several cookies because then we're emphasizing that it's going to be more right yeah we often use
this when we want to emphasize how many there are right if you're yes you say i can think of several
examples yes maybe you can only think of two or three but yeah you don't want to say i can only
think of a few examples you're sort of wanting to exaggerate how many you can think of so you
always want people to think you have more ideas right or how about i did several chores today okay
where maybe you actually did one right yeah maybe two maybe three but i don't want to i'm not gonna
be like i did a couple of chores yeah do you use several i mean to me it feels a little bit formal
you know it feels to me a little too formal it is a little more formal here's where i see
it used often if someone is being introduced and you're never going to say like they have won a few
awards they have written a few books that's where you're going to say several they have won several
awards and have written several books especially if they've written more than three because you
don't want to it almost sounds rude to under um represent the amount when it's something that
they would be proud of right that's a good point yeah yeah it does it is a little bit more formal
but yeah i definitely use it if i'm talking about something that that i want to emphasize how much
there was i would say several i love that it's so good to have this vocabulary guys in your back
pocket introducing someone is really important it's really important the way you present what
they've done right for sure right you don't want to belittle them or their accomplishments
you're you're going to have them present to people that you want to be impressed by their accolades
which means you know all of their accomplishments and awards you want to make sure to uh emphasize
that right we also want to point you guys to lindsay and i we recorded an episode some
months back episode 1380 where we talked about the difference between few a few and little which is
a little bit related here because we talked about few so if you missed that one it's really really
excellent so yes guys 13.80 yes i love it go and find that episode once we finish this one today
guys you can go a little deeper right with this few a little several you really want to deepen
your knowledge here because this matters you're going to use this stuff all the time oh yeah we
use these words all the time okay let's do a role play lindsay all right here we go so here you and
i are about to head into a meeting and you aubrey you are trying to finish up a project at your desk
it's so frustrating when you're trying to finish something and you have to go do something else
yes i know it's so hard all right here we go the meeting is starting are you coming
yes i'll be there in a couple minutes you've been late to several meetings this month no just a few
okay but we're doing several fun icebreaker questions to start this meeting and i don't
want you to miss it oh fun i'll hurry i'll just be a few minutes okay i'll see you there
several important agenda items for today there are several important agenda items today so hurry up
i love it you're like you know i'm going to be late so it's like let me say this another way yeah
exactly that's another way but really you need to come now like exactly you should be walking right
you should be on your way well follow me here yeah i love it so good so first i said you're
asking if i'm coming and i said i'll be there in a couple minutes so even if i know i'm gonna take 20
minutes i'm saying a couple because i i don't want you to think i'm gonna be late i don't want you to
think it's gonna be a long time exactly and notice here guys you know if you have the app if you're
listening on the app android or ios you will be able to see this in the transcripts but notice
that aubry said yes i'll be there in a couple minutes not a couple of minutes right because this
is spoken english i'm in a hurry i'm working on something i'm not going to take that time to say
a couple of minutes there's no time you should be spending that time working on your and your stuff
get it done you can get to the meeting exactly and then i said this sounds a little bit reprimanding
right you've been late to several meetings this month okay it is right and you're feeling like
there's a bunch you've been listening to a bunch of several and i say no just a few
maybe it's seven but i'm trying to make it sound like less and i'm trying to make it
sound like more more exactly so that's interesting so it's all about the angling right we're making
creating our own angles on things so interesting um and then i said okay but we're doing several
fun icebreaker questions to start this meeting and i don't want you to miss it
so that you're wanting to emphasize like this this would be a perfect thing to say to me because
that's really fun to me i don't want to miss that and if you say we're doing a few
of these not as exciting we're doing several to emphasize how many there are ooh that might oh
okay it's not enough just to say that we're playing games i have to say we're playing
several games to get you there right yes well that's more more appealing for sure i love it
okay good and then you said oh now your mind has changed and you're ready to go right yes
okay oh fine i'll hurry i'll just be a few minutes okay you're still writing about your guest though
and then i say okay i'll see you there several important agenda items today are on the are on the
agenda today right so hurry up okay good so that again i don't know why that several is feeling
very formal to me but again we're in an office setting yeah well yeah but i'm also wondering
if um this might be more geographic i definitely grew up we say several all the time and it could
be that you didn't as much maybe in college or yeah oh yeah so that would be interesting to
know yeah guys it sounds a little off to you right it sounds off it sounds not very conversational um
but guys pay attention to our language we have slightly different nuances but we're representing
american english from two different corners of the country right so this is fantastic i love it
so now in future podcast episodes you guys are probably going to notice yeah i'll say several
here and there and lindsey maybe won't right because you have this interesting nuance to how
we grew up speaking i love it so good so what's a takeaway for our listeners what should we leave
them with yeah these words seem so simple right couple few several but they actually convey a lot
of meaning and there's implied meaning that you maybe wouldn't be aware of until you heard this
podcast right we choose which one we used based on the impression we want to give of whether
or something is small and insignificant or if we want to imply that it's bigger and more important
so you want to practice using these words in context so that you can make connections with them
yeah i mean vocabulary is that connection tool you need and again like i said before we are always
convincing people of something we're always kind of showing them different angles of ourselves
you know that's just how humans are right so this is giving you a chance to do that and
have these tools guys so good exactly awesome so good don't eat five donuts
yeah that's the moral of the story today you must eat a couple donuts you must have been in
sugar shock or something probably was by the end of that night i know i don't i clearly don't pay
enough attention to what i'm taking into my body clearly all right we'll have to work on that all
right thanks for hanging out today aubry this has been great i'll see you next time bye take care